Discuss. Typical Blizzard to leave such a plothole. Adria states she had to take leave of Leah and spent all that time hunting the prime and lesser evils and used the black soulstone to trap all their souls in one place. Yet we have to hunt down the soulstone by tracking down Kulle's archives and reforming him using a thousand frigging body parts of his scattered all over the desert. And yet THE STORY STATES Adria had it before, managed to trap the souls of all the other evils in it, and then lost it again. The events of Diablo 2 also contradict this. Mephistos and Diablo's soulstones were shattered, sending their souls to the Abyss. Andariel and Duriel .... they had no soulstone, their souls went back to Hell or the Abyss. No one trapped them inside a soulstone. This begs the question .... WTF BLIZZARD??!!? MAKE SOME SENSE

How do they always manage to make somebody like me whos very finnicky about the story and lore, well ... very angry? *sigh*

This very question is in my mind for hours... I'm really disappointed about this game... It took 5 years to develop this game yet still there are ridiculous lore gaps... Also Diablo end fight was so bad.. Even a low level dungeon boss in Wow has more scenario into it...

Also, I might be wrong here, wasn't the Bastion's Keep a barbarian stronghold? only western soldiers there defending it.

Also, why is it so nonchalant that you're a nephalem? Your character is unaware when Krulle hints at it and then the Angels and others just start calling you nephalem and your character doesn't seem to react or care...(even when I have optional dialog w/ the angels about it)

Also, why is it so nonchalant that you're a nephalem? Your character is unaware when Krulle hints at it and then the Angels and others just start calling you nephalem and your character doesn't seem to react or care...(even when I have optional dialog w/ the angels about it)

The only problem I had with the story was the insinuation that shattering the BSS (or, apparently, killing Diablo's Prime Evil form in Heaven) could actually kill the Evils forever. I'm sure it'd ruin their day, sure, but come on -- they're basically primal gods.

Oh, and the whole thing where Tyrael can choose to become a mortal. They handled it fine, but it just seemed weird (in a game where bees shoot bees, yeah, I know).

Glad to hear I'm not alone, I thought everybody would jump on me and call me a whiner, tbh Nice to see other people noticed. I dont know, I just wish there was some more effort put into the story. Overall, the game is very solid and well worth the wait, imo. Beautiful scenery, lots of nice side quests and lots of lore ... its just inconsistent in places.

@ marshmallow, yes I also agree about Tyrael becoming mortal, they also handled it badly, it just doesnt make sense. What did he become? A nephalem? Thats impossible, it would destroy the whole concept of nephalem. So hes not a human then, hes a 'mortal' angel. Err ... wtf?

@saintofkillers: Tbh, the whole nephalem backstory didnt bother me. The whole festering woods story and what went down in the past seems like a nice addition to the lore, even though again its not delved into very well, the lore books just keep mentioning a battle between the ancients and some woman Nezara or something, but no more. However, regards to your point, I suppose the hero is aware of his nephalem birthright, that he is the one, like Uldyssian, who is spawned every once in a thousand or so years, and especially now that the Worldstone is destroyed and its not dampening humankind's powers anymore (mentioned in some lore books in the game too ... )

The nephalem were the most powerful beings to ever stride these lands, but the questions of their existence vex me still. Why did they die out? How can I access their secrets? And how am I to locate that unique, rare, singular person born possessing their power, as happens sporadically. Infrequent, to be sure, but it does occur.

How can I locate those possessing the nephalem birthright? What are the signs I need to be searching for? I must be ready to act should the opportunity present itself.

OP, this plot point really bothered me as well since it is not well explained. I fought Zoltan Kulle twice just to hear the dialogue again. As far as I can tell, Adria didn't capture the Prime Evils' souls in the black soulstone and then lose it. She "tagged" the demons' souls so that when the soulstone is completed by Zoltan Kulle, the souls would be absorbed into it. How do you tag a demon's soul? I don't know. Where were the souls for the last 20 years? I don't know. It wouldn't have taken much extra effort to really flesh out this piece of plot. I can't imagine why they didn't.

OP, this plot point really bothered me as well since it is not well explained. I fought Zoltan Kulle twice just to hear the dialogue again. As far as I can tell, Adria didn't capture the Prime Evils' souls in the black soulstone and then lose it. She "tagged" the demons' souls so that when the soulstone is completed by Zoltan Kulle, the souls would be absorbed into it. How do you tag a demon's soul? I don't know. Where were the souls for the last 20 years? I don't know. It wouldn't have taken much extra effort to really flesh out this piece of plot. I can't imagine why they didn't.

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Thank you, thats pretty much my thoughts. They put a lot of effort into this game, it really shows, just not the story, apparently it went all into the gameplay. I was really happy today I reached Nightmare (hey im playing solo and a wizard who cant tank to save her life, and gold and good items are far harder to come by in the game than in D2) and monsters have buffed hp and damage and movement and champions now have 2 mods. ... for example I ran into vampiric molten skeletons and mortar + fast scavengers and it took me a full 10 mins to defeat them, I was like 'damn this games a real challenge, well done blizzard' ... but the story leaves me a bit let down after all that.

And they even let her hold onto the rock containing the seven most dangerous beings in the universe, and work dark magic on it, supposedly to destroy them forever... but why has nobody ever heard of this kill-prime-evils-forever-magic before now, like maybe some of these angel guys who have been trying to do so since the world began? Even if the thought NEVER OCCURRED TO ANYONE that Adria might not be truthful about her motives, did nobody stop to think "Hrm, who is this Adria person anyway, and what makes her qualified to handle this sort of task, the sort of task that godlike beings have insofar proven incapable of, and from which devastating consequences for failure are certain, based on past events." As far as I know, Adria isn't a famous thouand-year-old super-mage, she's some witch who lives in a shack. Why do they let her call all the shots?

And, okay, so Adria can "tag" the souls of the evils to set them up in that black soulstone when they die, yeah? 20 years ago, that's what she did, and the soulstone apparently absorbed them just fine from the little pocket-dimension it was in. For 20 years, it held five of the seven of them, including the three bad-assest, just fine as far as we can tell. Does nobody else stop to think "Wait, Adria, why don't we just leave the black soulstone here in limbo while you tag Belial and Azmodan. The hero kills the demons, the demons go into the soulstone, and it'll be protected from weirdos by being in a pocket dimension." Why remove it at all?

But no, they just go along with her evil plan, buying her poorly thought out cover story despite the huge gaping holes.

The Diablo games never really had amazing plots (as in the actual games you played). What they do have is amazing lore and backstory. D3 really isn't any different.

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Wrong, Diablo 1 had one of the best stories back in the day, I remember people comparing it to the story of Legacy of Kain Blood Omen (1996) which is also considered one of the most impressive plots in gaming history along with the rest of the LOK series.
Diablo 1 story was dark, gothic and Horror yet simple and beautiful and it was made awesome by backstory of the world or in D1 case back story of tristram. They just ruined it in D2. D3 is just a run for loot and gear, and it's quite fun honestly.

No what I said still stands. The plot of D1 is "show up at messed up town, oh bad stuff is coming out of the cathedral, explore cathedral and kill the bad guy at the end". That is what you actually DO, that is the PLOT. The BACKSTORY (what lead up to those events that you actually play) and LORE (the universe of the game) were what made it awesome.

Wrong, Diablo 1 had one of the best stories back in the day, I remember people comparing it to the story of Legacy of Kain Blood Omen (1996) which is also considered one of the most impressive plots in gaming history along with the rest of the LOK series.
Diablo 1 story was dark, gothic and Horror yet simple and beautiful and it was made awesome by backstory of the world or in D1 case back story of tristram. They just ruined it in D2. D3 is just a run for loot and gear, and it's quite fun honestly.

The plot and backstory of the first game was fantastic. The mythology was tremendous, the artwork was amazing, and the entire storyline fit together. Everything made sense.

Diablo II was a step down, because the lore really didn't compete with the first game, but overall the plot of Diablo II was still sensible. Prime evil lose trying to free other's that were trapped generations ago? Cool, lets go stop him. Chase him across the world, fail, but then defeat the other evils and destroy them. Awesome.

Diablo III is a clusterfrak. Very little is explained, every little makes sense, and on the whole the entire thing leaves you scratching your head.

And, okay, so Adria can "tag" the souls of the evils to set them up in that black soulstone when they die, yeah? 20 years ago, that's what she did, and the soulstone apparently absorbed them just fine from the little pocket-dimension it was in. For 20 years, it held five of the seven of them, including the three bad-assest, just fine as far as we can tell. Does nobody else stop to think "Wait, Adria, why don't we just leave the black soulstone here in limbo while you tag Belial and Azmodan. The hero kills the demons, the demons go into the soulstone, and it'll be protected from weirdos by being in a pocket dimension." Why remove it at all? But no, they just go along with her evil plan, buying her poorly thought out cover story despite the huge gaping holes.

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For the last 20 years, the blacksoulstone held no souls because it was not complete. We have to resurrect Zoltan Kulle so he'll complete the stoulstone, which he does. ONLY THEN, are the 5 souls absorbed into the BSS. I guess they're in limbo before then. When Angels die, their souls are reborn from the Arch that is the remains of that ultimate good being (forgot the name). It's sensible that something similar happens with demons. What really bothers me is that after all 7 evils are trapped within the souldstone and you actually defeat Diablo, why not shatter the BSS then? Why just throw Diablo off the ledge with the soulstone intact? Even in D2 you had the sensibility to smash the soulstones.